News: The Stephen Cleary Adaptation Workshop

Presented by Film Victoria, this workshop is a mixture of lectures, project work, modules and intimate group discussions. The workshop has three main strands, which are:

• Adaptation: Theory, including the three kinds of adaptation - reconstruction, re-imagining, deconstruction;
• Adaptation: Development Practice, including adaptation's analytic documents; and
• Project work: individual teams work on the adaptation project they have brought to the workshop, in partnership with a workshop tutor.

Why Adaptiation?

• Adaptation presents many unique challenges to a screenwriter;
• Adaptations account for a disproportionate amount of Oscar and award-winning films and successful films at the box office; and
• Many experts believe that at least a third of the projects on a producer's slate should be adaptations.

About Stephen Cleary

Stephen Cleary was Head of Development at the UK's national film Agency, British Screen, for three and a half years. He developed over 60 produced feature films including LAND AND FREEDOM (Ken Loach), BEFORE THE RAIN (Milcho Manchevski, Acadamy Award nominee for best foreign film, winner Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival), ROB ROY (Michael Caton-Jones), and BUTTERFLY KISS (Michael Winterbottom).

Stephen founded ARISTA, Europe's largest private film development agency in 1996. Graduates of ARISTA's training programs have written, directed or produced over 250 feature films and thousands of hours of television drama. Films produced, directed or written by ARISTA graduates in recent years include:

• THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND;
• BRICK LANE;
• TOTSI;
• THE FLYING SCOTSMAN; and
• LONDON TO BRIGHTON.

Eligibility to Attend

Preference will be given to adaptation projects that have been funded by Film Victoria in the last three years. Adaptation projects include true stories and biographies as well as material based on pre-existing produced material, including plays, novels, musicals, articles etc.

We will accept projects that are at treatment stage as well as scripts.

The workshop will run from Thursday 26 March to Tuesday 31 March inclusive in regional Victoria (near Daylesford).

Source: Film Victoria